CHENNAI: How would some of our favourite childhood characters fare in today’s day and age? Red Riding Hood uses social media to her advantage and Ariel advocates against plastic waste for her friends on the water and the land. This Children’s Day, kids in the city rewrite the stories we have all grown up listening to — with a modern twist.
The murmur of seafoam and crash of briny tides, squawks of seagulls and inconceivable depth — the ocean hosts all kinds of alluring life. Beneath the surface thrived jubilant beings that were much like humans, except for their aquatic tails that moved deftly through water.One among them was a young mermaid named Ariel. She had curious eyes that matched the aquamarine hues of the ocean in which she lived. Ariel wasn’t like the rest of the merfolk. She longed for a life on land among humans.
When she decided to swim as close to the shore as possible, she saw a beautiful young man. He had ethereal eyes that she could stare into forever. But she was snapped out of her trance when the man flung something into the water — a white bag made of a strange material that Ariel didn’t recognise. She realised that she was surrounded by these objects, and it felt like she was being imprisoned by it.
Plastic edges stabbed at her tailfin. She looked to a large, menacing vessel above her. As it drifted towards her, it expelled an unfamiliar substance. She stared in horror as the dense, dark emulsion blanketed the surface and trapped innocent creatures. Ariel swam back to the ocean depths. She had to do something about this. She had to stop the humans, but how?
She swam to the infamous sea-witch’s lair to negotiate and they made an agreement. Her wish would be granted. Ariel would have legs in place of her tail, she would be human. She was determined to achieve her goals. She swam to the surface with her new legs and set off on a quest to save her new home.
by Shipra Sanjay, class 10
Cinderella had tried every diet out there. From the well-known GM diet and Keto diet to the lesser-known Rainbow diet, every combination of food, vegetable and meat had entered her body in different portion sizes. The problem was that the food would enter her body but not leave.The kids in town would laugh at her weight and make fun of her. The worst was when her step-siblings would sing that awful song — ‘Cinderelli, Cinderelli, look at the size of her belly!’ — and everyone would laugh. She cried about it a lot. Her step-mother was nice, even though her children were annoying. She would help her research new diets and prepare the food she needed. Her step-mother would also motivate her and encourage her when she felt like giving up.
This time’s diet was a combination of vegan and careful portion control. The reason Cinderella was giving up cake was because there was going to be a dance at school, and she wanted to wear a nice dress and look pretty. Of course, if a cute boy saw her, that was a bonus. But this was mostly for herself.She worked hard, went to the gym, and stuck to eating terrible leaves three times a day. Her step-mother and father cheered her on, and even her sisters seemed impressed at her effort. Cinderella saw the numbers on the weighing scale dip ever-so-slowly — first from the grams to finally a kilo, and then two.
The day before the ball, she tried out her dress with her step-mother. It was a pretty blue dress that she had seen at the shop, but it hadn’t fit around her tummy at the time. Cinderella hoped it would fit now. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The dress was still incredibly tight around her tummy.
She felt tears in her eyes as she held in her stomach and tried to yank down the dress. But her step-mother quickly helped her out of it, explaining that it would hurt her. Her step-mother came forward to hug her.“Don’t cry,” she said, hugging Cinderella tightly. “You’re beautiful even if you don’t fit in the dress. You’ve been working so hard. I’m very proud of you, and you should be proud of yourself too.” “But what will I do tomorrow?” “I will fix the dress for you.” “And if that also doesn’t work?”
“Then you and I can go dancing together, somewhere else, where you can wear comfortable clothes,” said her step-mother, wiping away her tears. “And later, if you promise to keep it a secret, we can go eat ice-cream.” Cinderella laughed and hugged her again.
by Pooja Khanna, class 12
She slowly breathed out, afraid someone was going to hear her behind the closed doors of her stepmother’s study. She walked briskly to her chambers, knowing that there was no time for emotions now — her stepmother was going to kill her, tonight.
As she fought the onslaught of tears trying to fight their way out, she focused on packing a backpack with all the essentials — clothes, water, food, weapons and money. This is it, she thought as she stepped on to the two-storey high window ledge, she took a deep breath and jumped. Slightly bruised, she began walking towards the city. She knew it wouldn’t be long before her stepmother realised she was gone. But with any luck, she would be long gone by then.
Many hours later, once she was far away from her house, she stopped at a small cafe on the side of the road. Sitting around a large table were seven short, stocky men. They invited her over and soon she began to trust them. They asked her where she would be staying and she told them that she had nowhere to go. They invited her to stay over at their place and she agreed.
They walked her to their home in the nearby forest when suddenly they heard a deafening roar. Before the rest of the group had a chance to draw their weapons, Snow had drawn out her knife and had the tiger locked in her sights.
She took a deep breath and said, “Drop your weapons, and stand back.” Reluctantly, the men agreed. For a few unimaginably long seconds, she stared into the tiger’s beautiful amber eyes and slowly began to inch closer, for she knew that the tiger would not hurt her. Using all of her courage, she gently pet the tiger on its head, the soft fur brushing against her hand. She willed herself to step closer and whispered into its ear, “Leave this town for you are not safe here, go to a place where a magnificent creature like you belongs.” It turned away, met her eyes one last time and vanished.Snow came into her friends’ town a hero, for any skilled fighter could kill a tiger, but few could do what Snow White did that fateful day.
by Noor Singh, class 7
Little Red Riding Hood just came back home from school. Her mother was very sick and so she agreed to help with the chores. Her mother wanted to give Red’s grandmother fruits as Grandma couldn’t walk properly, so she ordered Red to go to Grandma’s house and deliver them. She agreed, took the fruits, pocketed her mobile phone, and left on her cycle after waving her pet dog goodbye. On the way to Grandma’s house, Wolf saw her. He was in a bad mood, and wanted to prank her or eat her, whichever happened first.
Wolf followed her to the middle of the densely populated city. Wolf took a shortcut through an alley. Red wasn’t paying attention to any of this, as she was thinking about whether to buy an iPad or a laptop.
When Red stopped to buy chocolate at the best chocolate shop in the city, Wolf had already reached Grandma’s house. He was jubilant. Finally, something to eat! Either the grandma or the girl, I have to choose now, he thought. He cursed when he saw that the door was locked.
Wolf rang the doorbell and knocked on the door over 132 times. Two hours and 36 minutes later, Red finally arrived at the house and she saw Wolf.“Hey Wolf, why are you here?” she said bravely.Wolf tried to act smart. “Well, you know that I live in a cave right? And the cave is very hot because of the sun. I just wanted an A/C,” he said.
“Well, as long as you’re here, let’s take a selfie and post it on Instagram!” she said. Wolf agreed, and they took a picture. However, Red thought that Wolf was acting very suspiciously. While he wasn’t looking, she posted the picture on her Instagram story, mentioning that he was a criminal and sharing her location details.
When Grandma finally opened the door, Wolf was about to pounce on her. Suddenly, Red’s father, who was a lumberjack and a police officer, caught hold of Wolf’s shirt and handcuffed him.Grandma asked, “What was that all about?”. Red explained the situation to her. Red’s father appreciated Red’s bravery and street smartness, and told her not to post selfies on Instagram unless it was for such emergencies.
Red gave Grandma the fruits and cycled back to her house.
by Raghav, class 9
Once upon a time, there lived 3 little pigs — Mr Oink, Mr Snort and Mr Bacon. They were all real estate giants who were friends but competing against each other. In order to be the best, Mr Oink and Mr Snort resorted to illegal methods and made false promises to customers. Mr Bacon stuck to the rules.
All three decided to build huge gated communities in the same area. But, Mr Snort hatched a plan. What if I make two more blocks in my community, he thought.
He shared his plans with Mr Oink and Mr Bacon, and the latter advised against it. He said, “If you want to increase the number of blocks, you will have to raze down trees, which will mean you will be taking over the forest area.”But Mr Oink was greedy, and thought of extending his plot too. So he said, “Who cares about old trees? We will plant new ones.” But no one thought about the wild animals.
Mr Oink and Mr Snort had begun construction. The queen of the jungle Buffy the wolf got wind of their plan. Along with her animal friends she decided to take a look at what was up.When they came to the site, they were shocked. More than half of their homes was destroyed. Seeing her friends’ devastated looks, Buffy burned the buildings down.
by Rohan Rao, class 7